By Keystone Clutch Sports
The WPIAL doesn’t stop at graduation. When the college basketball regular season tips off next month, former Beaver, Lawrence and Butler county stars will be all over the rosters at one Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference school, and players from Allegheny and Washington county programs will be suiting up from the Bluff to Moon Township to State College. Here’s who to know, and why their seasons are worth following.
Slippery Rock: the local pipeline
Slippery Rock leans heavily on Beaver, Lawrence and Butler counties. The Rock’s 2026-27 men’s and women’s rosters are stacked with players from high schools in those three counties. Here are six to know.
Brady Mayo (men, guard, Beaver). Mayo is coming off a freshman season in which he played all 29 games, made 21 starts and averaged 10.8 points, according to Slippery Rock. He shot 86% at the foul line, a Slippery Rock freshman record. Basketball wasn’t always the plan. Mayo had signed with Bucknell as a football defensive back before switching sports in the spring of 2025, after a senior season at Beaver in which he was the WPIAL’s second-leading scorer and finished with 1,751 career points.
Braylon Littlejohn (men, guard, Butler). Littlejohn also chose hoops over a football future. He had committed to Miami (Ohio) for football before deciding basketball was his sport, and he joined Ian Grady’s program after scoring 1,208 points at Butler, according to the Butler Eagle. An ankle injury early last season cut into his debut year. He finished with 6.6 points per game in 16 appearances, including a season-high 16 points against Edinboro, per Slippery Rock.
Stainton Forbes (men, guard, Butler). Forbes, a freshman, averaged 15.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game for Butler last winter and was a 2026 Butler Eagle boys basketball all-star, the Eagle reported. That gives Slippery Rock two Butler High products in the same backcourt.
Regan Atkins (women, guard, Laurel). Atkins left Laurel as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,252 points, and she made an immediate splash in college. She was the 2023-24 PSAC West Freshman of the Year, the first Slippery Rock player to win it in 24 years, and she followed that with second-team All-PSAC West honors in 2024-25 while averaging a team-high 11.4 points. Slippery Rock’s official bio says she did not appear in a game in 2025-26, so her return is one of the bigger storylines for Ryenn Micaletti’s team.
Mairan Haggerty (women, forward, Neshannock). Haggerty helped Neshannock win WPIAL and PIAA Class 2A titles in 2022. She started her college career at Seton Hill before transferring to Slippery Rock, where she played in all 26 games last season and averaged 6.9 points.
Alyssa Gillin (women, forward, Central Valley). The Monaca native is back for a fifth year after starting all 26 games in 2025-26, when she averaged 11.5 points and 1.6 blocks per game. That shot-blocking rate ranked fourth in the PSAC, and Gillin is fourth in Slippery Rock history in career blocks, according to the school. She was already committed to The Rock during her senior season at Central Valley, the Beaver County Times reported in January 2022.
Opening night: Slippery Rock’s men open Nov. 9 at Lincoln (Pa.). The women play an exhibition at Kent State on Oct. 28, then open the regular season Nov. 9 at home against Tiffin. Both dates come from the official Slippery Rock schedules.
Division I: WPIAL names on the big stages
Jake DiMichele (Duquesne men, guard, OLSH). At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, DiMichele led the Chargers to four straight WPIAL titles and two PIAA championships, and he finished with 2,642 points, which ranked second in WPIAL history at the time. Now a redshirt junior on Dru Joyce III’s roster, he played 25 games off the bench last season and averaged 3.8 points, according to Duquesne.
Kellie McConnell (Duquesne women, guard, North Allegheny). McConnell won a WPIAL Class 6A title at North Allegheny and comes from a family with deep Duquesne roots. Her mother, Sherri, played for the Dukes. McConnell appeared in all 31 games last season and made her first career start, at VCU.
Grant Spacciapolli (Penn State men, guard, Pine-Richland). Spacciapolli is a freshman walk-on for Mike Rhoades. Penn State’s bio says he averaged 16.1 points as a Pine-Richland senior, holds the school’s single-season record for 3-pointers made and won the T.J. McConnell Leadership Award, which honors WPIAL players for leadership and sportsmanship.
Dylan Donovan (Robert Morris men, guard, Peters Township). Donovan arrives in Moon Township as the all-time leading scorer in Peters Township boys basketball history. He broke the boys record in a Jan. 30 win over South Fayette, The Almanac reported. He also helped the Indians reach the 2025 WPIAL Class 5A final, a 73-66 loss to Chartiers Valley.
Meghan Murray (Robert Morris women, guard, Hampton). Murray is coming home after two seasons at Kent State. She left Hampton as the girls program’s all-time leading scorer, Robert Morris Sports Now reported.
Ava Leroux (Robert Morris women, center, South Fayette). The 6-foot-4 Elon transfer begins her second season with the Colonials. She helped South Fayette win WPIAL Class 5A girls championships in 2022 and 2023.
The Keystone take
The Slippery Rock connection is the story to watch. Two Butler grads in the men’s backcourt, a Beaver scorer who has already shown he can produce in the PSAC, and three women’s veterans from Beaver and Lawrence counties give The Rock a real local identity heading into the season. Atkins’ return could be the swing factor on the women’s side. She led the team in scoring in both of her first two seasons, and a productive Atkins alongside Gillin’s rim protection would give Micaletti two proven pieces from just down the road.
At the Division I level, most of these players are in development or bench roles right now. Even so, former WPIAL standouts on the rosters at Duquesne, Robert Morris and Penn State are a good reason for local fans to keep an eye on the box scores this winter.
Know a Beaver, Lawrence or Butler County grad on a college roster we missed? Keystone Clutch Sports will keep tracking them all season.
Sources
- Slippery Rock men’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Slippery Rock women’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Slippery Rock bio: Brady Mayo
- Slippery Rock bio: Braylon Littlejohn
- Slippery Rock bio: Stainton Forbes
- Slippery Rock bio: Regan Atkins
- Slippery Rock: Atkins named PSAC West Freshman of the Year (March 8, 2024)
- Slippery Rock: Atkins named to All-PSAC West Team (March 7, 2025)
- Slippery Rock bio: Mairan Haggerty
- Slippery Rock bio: Alyssa Gillin
- Slippery Rock men’s basketball 2026-27 schedule
- Slippery Rock women’s basketball 2026-27 schedule
- Beaver County Times: Beaver Area’s Brady Mayo focusing solely on basketball collegiately (April 25, 2025)
- Pittsburgh Union Progress: Trio of former WPIAL basketball standouts pick Slippery Rock (May 6, 2025)
- Butler Eagle: Former Butler star Braylon Littlejohn ‘starting to feel comfortable’ with SRU (Feb. 3, 2026)
- Butler Eagle: Why Butler grad Braylon Littlejohn decided to blaze his own trail (Aug. 26, 2024)
- Butler Eagle: Butler basketball star Stainton Forbes chooses Slippery Rock (May 6, 2026)
- Laurel School District, The Spartan Shield: New Record! (March 16, 2023)
- Pittsburgh Union Progress: Neshannock’s Mairan Haggerty commits to Seton Hill (Nov. 28, 2022)
- Beaver County Times: Fusetti, Blackhawk win star-studded battle against Central Valley (Jan. 6, 2022)
- Duquesne men’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Duquesne bio: Jake DiMichele
- Trib HSSN: Former OLSH basketball star Jake DiMichele commits to Duquesne
- Duquesne women’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Duquesne bio: Kellie McConnell
- Trib HSSN: North Allegheny’s Kellie McConnell commits to Duquesne basketball
- Penn State men’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Penn State bio: Grant Spacciapolli
- Pine-Richland Athletics: Seven seniors announce collegiate athletic plans
- Robert Morris men’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Robert Morris bio: Dylan Donovan
- The Almanac: Donovan breaks Peters Township scoring record (Feb. 3, 2026)
- WPIAL: Boys basketball champions, Class 5A
- Robert Morris women’s basketball 2026-27 roster
- Robert Morris bio: Meghan Murray
- Robert Morris Sports Now: RMU WBB adds former WPIAL standout through transfer portal
- Robert Morris bio: Ava Leroux
- Robert Morris Sports Now: Robert Morris picks up transfer commitment from former South Fayette standout
- WPIAL: Girls basketball champions, Class 5A
- Trib HSSN: South Fayette repeats as WPIAL Class 5A champs (March 4, 2023)
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